12 21 12
by Midnight Ninetales
Summary: On December 20, 2012, Knuckles warns Sonic that his ancestors predicted the end of the world the next day. Are the ancient echidnas correct, and if so, can this disaster be prevented?
1. Dawn of the Final Day

Dawn of the Final Day

December 20, 2012 was an ordinary, cloudless day. The air was crisp, and a light, cool breeze swept through the air. Sonic had just ordered a chili dog from his favorite stand, when someone rammed into him from behind. The delectable-looking chili dog flew from Sonic's hand, and landed in a puddle a few feet away.

Sonic spun around to see who had ruined his breakfast. "What's the idea, Knuckles? You just destroyed a perfectly good chili dog!" he complained.

"It's the end of the world!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"Hey, calm down, Knucklehead. What's got you so riled up?" Sonic replied, not thinking about the fact that calling Knuckles names would not be an effective tactic to stop his tirade.

"No, it's literally the end of the world! I just discovered an old ruin on Angel Island that was left by my ancestors. It predicts an apocalypse tomorrow!"

"And what exactly is the nature of this so-called apocalypse?" Sonic asked skeptically.

"Well, uh, actually it doesn't say..." Knuckles replied sheepishly.

"Your ancestors have made mistakes before. How do you know that this isn't just something some trickster made up to scare everyone in the present?"

"They made a prophecy that came true before. Remember the Mecha Sonic incident? They made that mural that we saw inside that ancient palace."

"Okay, so you might have a point with that, but what are the chances that the world will end tomorrow? Today is a perfectly normal day. At least it was until you ruined my breakfast." Sonic said with a bit of annoyance.

"Who eats chili dogs for breakfast, anyways..." Knuckles mumbled.

"Huh? What did you say?" Sonic inquired.

"Oh, nothing." Knuckles said. "But I guess you're probably right about the whole end of the world thing. I was probably just overreacting."

It was rare for Knuckles to admit that he was wrong, so Sonic was a bit surprised. "Finally get over that pride of yours, Knucklehead?" he teased.

Knuckles, enraged by this comment, threw a punch at Sonic, who easily stepped aside, causing the echidna to fall over due to the momentum. "See ya later, Knux!" Sonic called out as he ran off, forgetting about the lost chili dog for the moment.

I will add the next chapter as close to 12:00 AM (my time) as possible. That is, assuming that the world still exists! Till next time, maybe...


	2. The Frying Pan

The Frying Pan (12/21/12 12:00 AM)

Sonic awoke in the middle of the night to a loud _**BOOM!**_ He looked outside the window and saw robots everywhere in Station Square!

"How could Eggman be mistaken for an apocalypse?" Sonic wondered.

He dashed outside and ran towards the area on which the robots were focused. Knuckles was already there, annihilating the robots with his powerful punches. Sonic heard a plane, looked up, and saw Tails arriving. Amy was there too, swinging her hammer haphazardly around.

Sonic spindashed into the nearest robot, took out nine more with a homing attack, then destroyed yet another with his foot as he flew downwards. But for three robots that he destroyed, five more took their places.

They fought for around nine more minutes. Soon, the robots were few and far between. Suddenly, Knuckles shouted out "Something's happened to the Master Emerald! I can't sense its presence on Angel Island anymore!"

The sky darkened overhead, and Sonic and the others looked up. To their surprise, they saw Eggman's flying ship, the Egg Carrier!

"I thought that thing was destroyed in the battle with Chaos!" Sonic exclamed.

"He must have built another one," Tails replied.

"Where does he get all those materials, anyways?" Sonic wondered.

Almost immeadiatly after that comment, what looked like a dark cloud descended upon the Egg Carrier, sending it flying downwards, smoking.

"Look out!" Amy shouted.

Everyone began to run as fast as they could to get away from the iminent crash. The Egg Carrier came crashing down where the group had been only moments before. The black cloud swooped down from the sky, and Sonic and friends got a better look at what it really was.

They could hardly believe their eyes.

Black Doom had returned.

Chapter two is up, and the world has not ended thus far. Lets see if it stays that way, shall we?


	3. The Fire

The Fire (12/21/12, 1:07 AM)

"B-but Shadow destroyed that thing ages ago!" Tails exclaimed.

Suddenly, the friends noticed that the Egg Carrier was no longer just smoking, but now burning!

"Uh-oh! It's gonna blow!" Tails cried out frantically.

Everyone began to run again. Sonic heard a yelp, and saw that one of Tails' tails was caught under some falling rubble. He started to turn back, but Tails motioned for him to keep running. "Just go! If you come back, we'll both die!" he shouted in pain.

Sonic ignored him and ran over to help, but he couldn't lift the rubble. Amy joined him, but they still couldn't budge it.

Just then, there was an ground-shaking explosion! Sonic and Amy were forced to leave Tails, lest they die as well. As Sonic ran, he looked back and silently apologized to Tails for having to leave him. They ran as fast as they could, but Amy wasn't fast enough. As Sonic reached Knuckles, he realized that she wasn't with them.

Sonic hung his head, and did something rare: he began to cry. "I should have been able to save them! There must have been something I could have done!" he said in sorrow.

"I know, but we have to keep going. If we don't stop Black Doom, the whole world will be destroyed. I think we should start by locating the Chaos Emeralds." he said.

"Eggman probably had them, along with the Master Emerald. They were on Angel Island too, right?"

The two went back over to the site of the explosion, where only flaming rubble remained. They carefully avoided the flames and sharp bits.

Knuckles stopped and focused. "I think I sense the Master Emerald over there. Or at least part of it. I think it shattered again." He walked over to some rubble, and shattered it with a single punch.

"Why couldn't you have done that for Tails?!" Sonic asked angrily.

"If I'd gone back, I would have been caught up in the explosion too, along with Tails and Amy…" he replied sadly.

"Oh…" Sonic said.

As Knuckles knocked aside the rubble, they saw something gleam beneath. Knuckles uncovered it more, and they saw four shards of the Master Emerald, along with six of the Chaos Emeralds (blue, cyan, purple, green, yellow, and clear), each split into three.

"Where's the seventh one?" Sonic wondered.

"Maybe Black Doom has it." The two shivered at the thought. "I should be able to fix these, though."

Knuckles pieced together the six Emeralds, only to discover that the yellow Emerald was missing a piece. "We'd better look around. With luck, it won't be to far away." Knuckles said.

Eventually, after several minutes of searching, the two found it, engulfed in flames, in some rubble over to the side. Sonic tried running around them very quickly, but he couldn't put the flames out.

"How are we supposed to get that shard out of there?" Sonic wondered.

"Leave that to me," said a voice from up on top of what was formerly a building.

Sonic and Knuckles looked up at the sound of the familiar voice, and saw Shadow.

I have no grudge or dislike towards Tails and Amy, but this was neccesary for the storyline. Sorry to any Tails and Amy fans out there, but please, keep reading. Its not all this depressing.


End file.
